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THE DEVIL'S COMPANY
by David Liss, read by Simon Vance
Brilliance Audio, July 2009
Unabridged pages
$38.99
ISBN: 1423327039


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Though most of David Liss's novels involve some aspect of commerce, such as the whiskey rebellion, his writing is at its best when he combines his interests in seventeenth and eighteenth century history as it intersects with the lives of Europe's Portuguese Jews, whose flight from the Inquisition took them to London and Amsterdam. THE COFFEE TRADER (2004) is the finest example of this combination. In DEVIL'S COMPANY, Liss returns to Benjamin Weaver, a Jewish "thief taker," who was the main character in A CONSPIRACY OF PAPER (2000) and A SPECTACLE OF CORRUPTION (2004).

In the current installment, Weaver is blackmailed by the mysterious Jerome Cobb to spy on the British East India Company. At stake is who will control the profitable production and distribution of silk and calico: the British importers, the London textile workers, or perhaps the French. To protect his friends and relatives, Weaver becomes embroiled with spies and double agents, plots and counterplots. Finally, Weaver zeroes in on Absalom Pepper, whose complex private life and inventive genius hold the keys to the puzzle.

In the end, the plot is too rococo; furthermore, Liss would have done well to let go of some of the historical facts that came his way rather than cramming them all in. Finally, the struggle of free trade versus protectionism that lies at the heart of the novel is partly derived from the writings of Sir Josiah Child's advocacy of the East India Company in the previous century, though the debate over the implications of global trade still raged.

The audio version contains a stellar performance by Simon Vance, who has justly won many audio awards for his remarkable performances. Here, Vance executes the voices and characters of people of all ranks, professions, and backgrounds with aplomb. His riveting portrayal of Weaver compensates nicely for some of the weaker and more obvious plotting devices.

Reviewed by Karla Jay, July 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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